What Happens Now?
by bladesonic2005
Summary: Set well after the end of the game. Empire City is starting to open up, and crime is all but gone. Can Cole find comfort in something else now that his heroics aren't needed? Oneshot.


Lights flickered and went dark as I walked past. Electricity bristled across my damp coat as I walked down the street, looking for shelter. The clouds overhead were dark, ominous, and heavy with rain they were already starting to drizzle. The rainwater collided with my skin, drawing the electricity from my reserves and out into the open, causing surges and shorts around me. I felt weak, and even though I could still feel some power within me, it wasn't much; the rain wouldn't help that matter. Deciding to try and recharge before I ducked under an awning, I tried to drain a streetlamp near me, but before I could grab more than a few watts, a bolt of electricity lashed out, overloading the circuit. The rain was getting heavier, and the loose electricity was finding an easier path to it's destination, striking anything around me that could conduct electricity. This includes humans, but luckily there were no pedestrians around me. I finally reached the awning and instantly started shedding my clothes and wringing the water from them. After a few minutes, I was mostly dry and not likely to become a walking thunderstorm. It was humid, though, and there were charged particles everywhere. Even a simple bolt could trigger a storm. My body wasn't reacting well to the rain; Empire City is dry most of the time, and there hadn't been rain since the blast.

As I sat huddled under an awning, stopped from doing anything at all by rain, I realized I wasn't as unstoppable as I thought I was. I've become so much stronger since I gained this ability, and even if I was trying to do the right thing, it was starting to get to my head a little. Hell, I think anybody would feel like a god if they could summon lightning at will or throw electric grenades. And I truly owned the city; the gangs were gone, either left town through the relaxed quarantine or laying low. Sure, people hung posters of me on the walls and cheered me in the streets, and I had done this in the beginning for them, but now that I felt so... so powerful, it was _mine_. I could go anywhere I wanted without oppression, and the extent of my responsibility was reviving someone who collapsed from the plague and not blowing the city off the map.

I still couldn't get through the quarantine; it seems the government isn't ready to deal with someone who could blast the shit out of the entire army; but life has improved drastically in the city. Regular supply drops are coming in from the mainland, we have steady food, and those who aren't infected can generally get out. The Historic District is clean of the First Sons, or any other gang for that matter. With Kesser gone and nobody truly at the helm, I was eventually drive them off into the Neon, then through the quarantine. The Dust Men followed suit; Alden Tate tried to escape through the quarantine and was captured. The Dust Men left one last present for us, though; a bomb rigged to a substation in the Warren. It knocked a good portion of the district off the grid, and the substation is too far gone for me, or any contractor in the city to fix. Zeke, who I finally was able to forgive, helped me build some batteries for the Warren using the Blast Shards I had collected. Those things used to give me so much power, but eventually they were useless to me. I could tell they were packed with energy, though, and they function quite well in Zeke's batteries. They're able to supply an entire apartment block with a good 3 days of electricity before I need to swap out the shard.

The Neon was impacted the most by the relaxed quarantine. Most of it's residents were clean and were out of the city in days, if not hours. The Reapers were all but gone, with only a few isolated incidents scattered about the district. The most they really can do any more is mess with the cops and steal a few wallets to try and get some food. Sasha went down like Tate, trying to get the hell out. The DARPA agents patrolling Stampton Bridge have strict orders not to let Conduits, including myself, out of the quarantine. There was nothing left for me. My powers, my ability, may tie me down forever, but they don't serve me a purpose anymore. There's no evil left to fight, and no point in becoming it. I'm just like everyone else, just a little different inside.

The rain was starting to die down, but I didn't care. I had nowhere to go, nothing to do, nobody to save, besides myself, and the only person who could have truly done that is dead. I stretched out under the awning, laying my head on my arms. My brain was tearing me apart, it refused to sleep; refused to yield. A wave of emotion came from somewhere deep inside me that had gone numb since Kessler ruined my life. I tried to summon tears, but there was no spare water in my body; never is. I turned over, burying my head into my arms.

"I love you, Trish," I whispered to myself.


End file.
